The present invention pertains to the art of refrigeration and, more particularly, to latches for door-in-door refrigerators.
Typically, a refrigerator has at least two exterior doors, with one door sealing a fresh food compartment and the other door sealing a freezer compartment. Such doors can be hinged so as to pivot or, alternatively, the doors can constitute a front for sliding drawers. The particular arrangement depends on the style of the refrigerator, such as a side-by-side, French door, bottom-freezer or top-mount configuration. Recently, door-in-door refrigerators have been created in which a door sealing a fresh food compartment, for example, includes both an inner door and an outer door. As a result, food or other items can be stored in a storage structure which establishes a specialty or auxiliary compartment between the inner and outer doors. Unfortunately, these known arrangements can also pose a problem for a user. Specifically, it is possible for a user to accidentally open both of the inner and outer doors simultaneously when attempting to open only the outer door.
With this in mind, there is a need in the art for a door-in-door refrigerator that enables a user to conveniently access both a specialty compartment (by opening only an outer door) and a main compartment of the refrigerator by simultaneously opening both an inner door and the outer door without accidentally accessing the other area.